As the question says, really - I get the impression that, when Strigi has indexed files, you should be able to search for them from the launcher - similar to in Windows 7. However, it only ever shows results for programs when I try to search for something. Am I just wrong about this?

Your questions seems to ask for some opinion. The answer provided by user26687 seems clear: Krunner and Kickoff let you search for files and applications. Kickoff has a menu which allows you to search for files without search-typing while KRunner will require the user to type-search in order to get a list of items. Try to be more explicit about which behaviour you expect and which behaviour your observe and people will let you know to what extent it is possible to bridge the gap between the two.
–
BenjaminAug 19 '12 at 18:23

1 Answer
1

Instead of browsing through all the tabs and categories you can simply
enter a search term. The search field has focus when opening the menu,
so you can simply start typing. The search will not only match against
applications names, but also against their description. So if you need
a browser, but don't know the name of the installed browsers, simply
type "browser" in the search field. This should result in a list of
all available browsers.

KRunner is a tool for searching and launching files and applications.
It can also be used for more generic operations such as calculator or
unit converter. On most systems KRunner can be activated by pressing
the Alt + F2 key combination.